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Cons:

Whether or not you liked the original State of Emergency was a matter of how willing you were to overlook its complete lack of depth and enjoy the beat-em-up action. It also earned its M rating, not just by littering the game with four-letter words and bucketfuls of gratuitous blood, but by instilling a real sense of chaos. Yet, somehow, State of Emergency 2 has left behind all of the intriguing elements of its predecessor and replaced them with generic third-person shooter conventions. It still retains some of the pandemonium of the original thanks to its legions of enemies, but the concept and gameplay have changed, leaving us with an unremarkable shooter that is too superficial to be gripping and too frustrating to be fun.

The game starts off with a bang, showcasing the botched execution of Roy MacNeil and the ensuing riot. However, as soon as you make it out of the gas chamber and venture into your first mission objectives, it's clear that all of the first title's freeform exploration was abandoned in favor of linear gunplay. It doesn't have to be a bad thing, but helter-skelter shooting action requires a good deal of design panache and fluid controls to approach greatness. Rather than looking to, say, Serious Sam or Armed & Dangerous as inspiration, State of Emergency 2 is more attuned to The Getaway 2 or Dead to Rights 2, more proof that some games just don't need sequels.

You'll still see some riots in this follow-up, but they're window dressing for the most part, rather than the set pieces that drove the bloodbaths of the first game. Even the initial prison escape lacks thrill: the prisoners run around wildly, occasionally stopping to stomp on a fallen guard, but are otherwise aimless. As are the guards, for that matter, waiting in their scripted locations for you to cross the invisible trigger, apparently oblivious to the throngs of convicts darting about. Much of the 12-mission campaign continues along these lines, with AI-controlled opponents running about with little regard for teamwork or environmental cover. There are times when the AI will also control another teammate, but in a nod to its own mediocrity, your partner doesn't take damage, which is just as well, since he's more of a bullet magnet than a true asset in combat.

It's not that the preceding don't get difficult, because they do. The problem is that it's only due to the sheer numbers of foes, trial-and-error mission design, and unresponsive controls. Targeting is standard fare: you can shoot your enemies in free-roaming mode, or use L2 to stop and aim. Spraying the room with bullets from an SMG is a surefire way to slay a roomful of cops, but firing a pistol or any other weapon requiring steady aim is a chore. In some sequences, you may need to target a specific point, yet your reticule may be directly over your mark and not turn red to indicate a clear shot. Moving your crosshair a pixel south and aiming directly at the air beneath will usually clear up the problem. In other areas, you'll need to stealthily peek around corners to get the best shot, but the mechanic is hit or miss. If you magically choose the best location for the process, pulling off a sneaky kill is a breeze, but unlike other games with wall-peeking, there is no tightness to the pose. All too often, you just ended up hanging out in the open and taking fire.